It seems so long ago now – October 7, 2010, home opener against the Flames, and the NHL debut of the Edmonton Oilers’ three prized rookies, first round draft choices all. The apple of many eyes was Jordan Eberle, two years removed from his own selection, a time during which he built up his reputation to nearly mythical status with a series of amazing “clutch” performances wearing the red maple leaf of Team Canada. Could he possibly live up to the the hype?

He sure did that first night, scoring in his NHL debut a goal so sensational that it stood up through an entire season of NHL hockey to be declared TSN’s Goal of the Year. The brilliant shortie against the archrival Flames was surely the individual highlight of a season far too short of them for Oiler fans. It was an emphatic statement under the bright lights that H.O.P.E. was no longer waiting in the wings but was actually here, like a healthy new baby delivered after a long and difficult pregnancy.

Of course rookies, like infants, require growth and nurturing, but Eberle and Co. not only survived but thrived in their first year, their promise and their health (mostly) intact. Jordan did miss a mid-season month with a nasty ankle sprain, but returned to play a key role down the stretch, even as Oilers other top forwards were falling to injury (Hemsky, Hall, Gagner, Horcoff) or trade (Penner). In the season’s final week Eberle passed a trio of teammates who had stalled at 42 points to claim the club scoring crown with 43. Not quite the 104 Wayne Gretzky scored as an Oiler to lead the club back in 1978-79, but nonetheless the first rookie to top Oiler scorers since that last WHA season 32 years ago.

With his highlight-reel calling card doing the rounds of the league, Eberle was subject to tough quality of competition right from the get-go, most commonly on a line with rookie winger Hall and veteran pivot Horcoff. Whoever he played with, Copper & Blue’s scoring chance analysis demonstrates that Eberle’s unit generated chances at a rate superior to the Oilers as a whole during every segment of the season. Overall at even strength, Eberle was on the ice for more chances for than against, an impressive feat on a team that was far below the break-even point. This ratio didn’t translate perfectly to traditional plus/minus, where Eberle posted a -12 on the season; however, while the youngster did make his share of goal-causing errors he was far from the worst offender on the club in this respect, and was victimized to some extent by a poor on-ice save percentage of just .895.

One area where Eberle showed considerable promise was as a puck hound. By eye an accomplished thief, he led the team by a significant margin in takeaways. Granted that those “real time” stats are notoriously unreliable due to systemic inconsistencies in recording same from one city to the next which expose a shocking lack of standardization by the NHL. While team totals can be pretty much entirely discounted, I maintain that counts within a given team have value because the players are scored by the same minor officials each game, thus all will be subject to the same biases from night to night.

Here are individual takeaway and giveaway results for regular Oiler forwards, sorted by the differential between the two:

Player

GP

MP

TkA

GvA

Diff

Jordan Eberle

69

1220

56

41

+15

Liam Reddox

44

660

23

12

+11

Colin Fraser

67

688

27

20

+7

Ryan Jones

81

1121

38

33

+5

Shawn Horcoff

47

878

29

24

+5

Taylor Hall

65

1184

45

45

0

Zack Stortini

32

227

4

5

-1

Linus Omark

51

783

33

35

-2

Sam Gagner

68

1207

33

38

-5

J-F Jacques

51

361

6

11

-5

Steve MacIntyre

34

120

1

7

-6

Magnus Paajarvi

80

1231

25

35

-10

Andrew Cogliano

82

1415

32

46

-14.

Ales Hemsky

47

859

17

32

-15

Dustin Penner

62

1145

35

51

-16

Gilbert Brule

41

565

9

29

-20

The plus players stand out among a group of forwards that were collectively -61. Most of them can be considered primarily defensive players – guys like Reddox, Fraser and Jones are bottom-sixers whose standard game state is “without the puck”, while the bottom of the list is dominated by players in a more offensive role. Eberle’s performance against type can be interpreted as a strong positive and perhaps a good indicator of his modus operandi down the road.

But let’s end where we began, with that sensational debut, a time of sweetness and light for Oiler fans when we hadn’t yet allowed a goal against all season and actually beat the darn Flames for once. The occasion sparked my favourite spoof feature of the season, courtesy TSN and a cast of straight men:

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